What a Wise Man Does

Well, four men were in the hospital waiting room to get their wives were having babies. Those were the good old days. Now, maybe not, though, I just remember that with each one of my children being born, I was more and more involved with each one for some reason, I mean, physically involved. And at one point, I looked to the nurse and said, Isn't that your job? What am I doing what I'm just here for moral support, I thought, but apparently I was back in the day. That's what happened. Men would be in the hospital waiting room. And then they would come out and they would be told, it's new boys, New Girl, this and that. Well, for men were in the waiting room years ago, and a nurse walks in first guy was sitting there and says, Congratulations, you're the father of twins. And he thought, oh my gosh, wow. And he collected himself for a minute and thought about it and thought it's so interesting, because I work for the major league baseball team, the Minnesota Twins, is that interesting. hour or so went by and nurse came out again to the second guy said congratulations, you're the father of triplets. And he said, wow, triplets. That's, that's incredible. That's weird. I you know, I work for the three M Company. so odd. Well, but an hour later, she came out again, and the third man was sitting there and other two were all happy. And the third father and she said congratulations is you're the father of quadruplets. He says, that's incredible. I worked for the Four Seasons Hotel. Well, she looked over the last man who hadn't had the news yet. And he was over there, kind of groaning and banging his head against the wall. I said, What's wrong with you? He said, I worked for the 711. I liked it too. Happy Father's Day to all the fathers that are here today. Today's the day where we honor those fathers. We honor those those father figures we have in our lives. We all have fathers or we wouldn't be here. Even if we didn't know them. We have fathers and we all have father figures who portray to us how a man should be, for better or for worse. And I don't think men often think maybe as much as they should, about the tremendous influence they have in their children's lives as well as all young people as modeling what a man should be. And not just what a man should be, but biblical manhood. And we can talk about how a man should be we could talk about all the qualities but one that's not often mentioned is that a man or really any person today but since it's Father's Day we'll talk about man but any person should be wise man should yearn to should strive for wisdom. Today, we're going to look at a man that was considered to be the wisest man in the Bible, King Solomon, and we're going to see how he exercised his wisdom. And as well, a few of his failures. They were in Second Chronicles chapter eight, starting in verse one. At the end of 20 years, in which Solomon had built the house of the Lord and his own house, Solomon rebuilt the cities that Hyrum had given to him and settled to the people of Israel in them. And Solomon went to Haman zuba and took it. He build Tadmor in the wilderness, and all the store cities that he built in Hamas. He also built upper Beth Horon, and lower Beth Iran, fortified cities with walls, gates and bars, and Bailiff and all the store cities that Solomon had, and all the cities for his chariots, and the cities for his horsemen, and whatever Solomon desire to build a Jerusalem and Lebanon and in all the land of his dominion, all the people who were left the Hittites, the Amorites, the parasites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, who are not of Israel, from their descendants who are left after them in the land, from the people of Israel had not destroyed these Solomon drafted as forced labor. And so they are to this day, but at the people of Israel, Solomon made no slaves for his work. They were soldiers, and his officers, the commanders of his chariots and his horsemen. And these were The chief officers of King Solomon 250, who exercise authority over the people. In verse 11. Solomon brought Pharaoh's daughter up from the city of David to the house that he had built for her. For he said, My wife shall not live in the house of David King of Israel, for the places to which the ark of the Lord has come are holy. Then, Solomon offered up burnt offerings to the Lord on the altar of the Lord that he had built before the vestibule as the duty of each day required, offering according to the commandment of Moses for the Sabbath's the new moons, and the three annual feasts, the Feast of Unleavened Bread, the Feast of Weeks, and the Feast of Booths. According to the ruling of David, his father, he appointed the divisions of the priests for their service, and the Levites for their offices of praise and ministry before the priests as the duty of each day required, and the gatekeepers and their divisions at each gate for So David, the man of God had commanded, and they did not turn aside from what the king had commanded the priests and Levites concerning any matter. And concerning the treasuries, thus, was accomplished, all the work of Solomon from the day, the foundation of the house of the Lord was laid, until it was finished. So the house of the Lord was completed. Heavenly Father, we thank you for today. As we look at this passage, this morning, Lord, I pray that you would show us through Solomon's life, what wisdom looks like how we are to exercise wisdom, and show us a little bit about his failures and the warnings we need to know and to heed as we go about living a life you've called us to live the power of Jesus Christ. Lord, we love you today. And and I pray that my words reflect your heart today, that you fill me with your Spirit and preaching and that those in here today that are here, receive your word, in spirit and truth in Jesus name. Amen. As we read through the passage, the one thing we see Solomon doing is building he's building and not just physical structures, but other types of structures he builds and a wise man builds, I want to show you four things a wise man should be building throughout his life, for things a wise man should build shouldn't be building number one, a wise man builds places, places and again, I'm not just talking about physical labor, physical building, we'll get to it. But why is man builds places, okay. It says in verse one, then 20 years, Solomon had built the house of the Lord and his own house, and he rebuilt cities as well and settled people in them. King David was a worrier, king, a conqueror, King Solomon was a building king, he was a builder. Now, David was said to be a man after God's own heart. So even though he didn't build much, he was still a man of God. But Solomon was considered the wisest man to have ever lived. And one of the things that made him wise was that he was a builder. Physically, literally, it took him seven years to build the temple, it took him 13 years to build his palace, but it completed the projects. And after these incredible projects were completed, he kept building verse three talks about going into the wilderness, and building up in these towns and all these towns, and through verse four, five and six. And so when the land is stable and secure, what do you do? Well, you make it more stable, you make it more secure, there was no war. So he was wise to make things secure. A good time to build security fortifications is when there is a time of peace. I remember. For most of my childhood, the miracle was not a war for Vietnam, there's a war, maybe a skirmish or two to the early 80s. We really had no war, maybe a little bit in the 90s until the early 2000s. And the strides our military made in 20 years was unbelievable, because there, they weren't in war. They were researching and building and developing. And that's what he was doing. He was he was building fortifications at a time of peace. And he didn't rest on his expansion. He kept building and kept improving. He built towns out in the wilderness. Why do you need a town out in the wilderness? Well, people want to live there. That's why he ramped up defenses. And it even tells us that He multiplied his horses and chariots but Deuteronomy 1716 tells us he shouldn't have done that. So we actually went and did things that Bible commanded him now ought to do, which is something for us to consider. When we're when we're sometimes we need to make sure in our zeal to build, that we don't do something God has told us not to do that we don't sin in some way, working too much is sin. So we need to make sure our priorities fall in line as we build our efforts, we will crash and we will burn. But generally speaking, wise people build and improve no matter your sphere of life wise people look for opportunities to build upon what they have already established. My wife, it was, I guess, still is a Girl Scout. And she liked talking about it, but she got the highest award you can get. As a Girl Scout, one of the things they taught her that she tried to impress upon our families, when you come into a place, you leave it a little bit better than where you found it. That's where they teach them. And that's what I'm talking about. Why is people build places, they leave them better than they found them. This is how success anything happens. You, you build school teachers right now or are enjoying their summer break. They're going to rest this summer, but they're going to come back and they're going to physically build their classrooms again, and I guarantee they're going to make them better, they're going to design them differently. Maybe they're going to build on their experience, businessmen and women, they're going to keep building their product, they're gonna keep building their business, don't become a workaholic, but continue to make it better. And as church members and this church, our church, we are to continue building our church, which is building the kingdom of God. We don't build necessarily our preferences, we build for the betterment of all of God's people. whatever organization you find yourself in, you keep looking for a way to make those organizations better, because a wise man builds up, the organizations he inhabits, he doesn't tear them down. He doesn't make selfish decisions. He builds them up. Now, the blessing it is to pastor here at first baptist. I make a lot of decisions every day, some small, some medium, some large. And because of the size and scope of the church, I'm doing much more than praying and preaching and shepherding. I'm having to manage staff, as many of you know, make decisions. I also get counsel and advice from others. But I know that God holds me responsible. So I have many preferences. Did you know that but most decisions are not made with my preferences. Ultimately, I'm called to make decisions that benefit the entire church. And you can't make everyone happy. But if you lead and build an order to make everyone happy, then what's going to happen is you'll eventually resent the people. You're supposed to be building and loving. But you can move things along for the betterment of the church and the organization. It should be like that in any organization, you are a part of you build for the benefit of that organization. We're in the middle of baseball playoffs. Now we have some local teams that are winning going to the state. We got college baseball on TV right now. And and one thing that you realize by watching baseball and the playoffs is it takes talent to win. But the most talented teams don't always win. You can have a team and name only it could just be a collection of individuals. But a real team plays for the betterment of the team. That's the teams that win. Team first they build the team, build the places you inhabit. That's what a wise man does. Secondly, and wise man builds people. Wise man builds people. Verse seven, says that all the people who are left of the Hittites Amorites now all these people groups who are not of Israel, verse eight, from their descendants who were left after them in the land, and the people of Israel had not destroyed these Solomon drafted as forced labor so they are to this day, but the people of Israel Solomon, they know slaves for his work. He made them soldiers and officers and all these high ranking officials. Now, what we read through here as we look at this as Solomon enslaved the foreigners. Now you might not think that's building people. It's certainly not empowering. Because God's instructions for conquering the native peoples of the land was to destroy them completely. But Israel never quite did that. They'd always leave some stragglers didn't quite obey God's law on that. And Solomon viewed these people as a resource, which is a shrewd business move. But it's not necessarily good for the people. So they gathered their descendants, he put them to work. But when it came to the people of Israel, he did not make them slaves, he empowered them as God's people, and he built them up, and he gave them all these high ranking jobs. Now, this text is not saying that we should treat unbelievers as slaves and give grace to God's people. It's not what saying, we know that Solomon was wrong to do what he did. He looked at it as purely as a business transaction. But we would do well to see how Solomon treated God's people. He blessed them. He empowered them. That's what wise men do. They empower people, they, they build people up. Most leadership books will all teach the same ways to build people up to encourage people in your life. It's all pretty much the same principles, whether you're interacting with your children, with your spouse, with your coworkers, almost all books will tell you the same things. You What do you do? Well, you you offer sincere compliments. Hey, you did a great, that was great. Good job. I'm proud of you. Right? You ask questions about their lives, you show interest in them, not fake, but a real interest. And you listen to them. When they talk, people can tell when they're talking to you, if you're not listening. They can tell if you're just ready for them to stop talking so you can talk. That's how we build people up. We listen. We notice when I do good things. And we tell them we be polite and uplifting. In our criticism, one of the hardest things about I think parenting, especially for me, a perfectionist, is when my children don't do right. It's much easier for me to call them and tell them instruct them on what they did wrong. Without then telling them, Hey, here's what you did, right? Here's what you did good. Here's what you can keep doing. building people up, we're looking at the positive. Yes, if there's a problem, we can talk about it. But that's what wise people do. They they build people. They build people, it's wise for many reasons. First of all, if someone's in your life, who is constantly building you up, you are going to want to be around them Amen. It's a good way to get friends build people up. But those people who are constantly criticizing, constantly tearing down, constantly finding fault first of all, that's not of God. Those are people you don't really want to hang around with. Those are people that you turn around on the aisle, Piggly Wiggly, eat around go the other way. Because you know, you're going to hear something. Right? It's not wise to tear people down. It's wise to build people up. But it's wise because ultimately that comes from a heart change by the Lord. changes by Jesus. A wise man builds up people he builds up people the same way Jesus builds up people. If there's ever someone to find fault in someone, it'd be Jesus finding fault in our lives. Amen. Bible says he didn't come to the world to condemn us were condemned already. He came to say this. And he died for us and he builds us up through His grace daily daily building us up through His grace that can you imagine if every morning Jesus was by your bed showing you where you failed the day before? All right. Let's see where you're going to improve today. Can you imagine? He doesn't. It gives us grace. Daily. So we should be like Jesus and build others up. Wise men build up people third, and wise men builds his family. A wise man builds his family and it doesn't matter how young or old you are, what position you are in the family. You can build it you know my four year old is the youngest in our family. He builds our family He does. He holds the siblings accountable for things. He does his job and building things and making sure the family is doing what it should be. You should have been, he should have been the firstborn up fourth, but that's what it is. Commercial 11 saw Solomon brought Pharaoh's daughter up from the city of David to the house that he had built for her. For he said, My wife shall not live in the house of David King of Israel. For the places to which the ark for the Lord have come are holy. If you didn't know much about Israel's history, or this passage, at first glance, you might think well, that's so sweet, solid, build his wife, her own house, and that Great Lakes providing for his family. But that's really not what's happening here. Because his wife was an Egyptian, which meant that if she lived in the places where Solomon was going to be living, based on her religious beliefs, she would make the temple grounds unclean, so he couldn't have her with him. He had to give her a place where she could live and not bring the curse of God upon Israel. Which, you know, Solomon could have avoided this all together, if he had not married her to begin with, once you say, Pastor, that's what I said. I want to show you what I mean by that. Look at first Kings, chapter 11. Now, King Solomon, loved many foreign women, does that sound like the wisest man in the world that doesn't? Along with the daughter of Pharaoh, there she is. He loved Moabite, Ammonites, Edomites, Cydonia and Hittite. Women, he was not prejudiced. From the nations concerning which the Lord had said to the people of Israel, you shall not enter into marriage with them, neither shall they with you, for surely they will turn away your heart after their gods. So, Solomon clung to these in love. He had 700 wives, who were princesses. That's why they were wives, and 300 concubines, those were the ones that weren't royal, royal birth, his wives turned away his heart. First lesson is probably not wise to have 1000 wives. Many reasons, but the wisest man who ever lived, repeatedly broke God's law and made 999 bad decisions. Yet, God still used him, Hey, man, he still blessed him. Now the consequences were that they turned his heart from the Lord. I'm not trying to joke around here when I say this, how, how you honor 700 women? How do you make them happy, they'll have different gods religions. Clearly, your heart is going to be turned away. And so his sins had consequences. But God's still gave him grace. Solomon built the Lord's family, not the way the Lord would have them do it. So when it comes to building up your family, man, especially Solomon, Solomon is not someone we look to for inspiration. It goes without saying, but he's someone we look to for warning. Now, it's illegal to marry more than one woman at a time in our country, praise the Lord. Maybe that's why this past is why that law exists. But there are still a myriad of ways. We can tear down our families and not build them up. Men especially you've been given plenty of inferred instruction on how to build up your family. Look at Ephesians chapter five. Verse 25, Husbands, love your wives. How, as Christ loved the church, gave himself up for her. That's the thing about leadership in general. That is so hard to watch with any leaders. A true leader is willing to die for the calls. For the family, for the wife. leader isn't about themselves. That's what he says. So that He might sanctify her having cleansed her by the washing of water with the words that He might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing that she might be wholly without blemish in the same way that Jesus sacrificed themselves. husband should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. Ephesians six, four fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord. Don't be someone who's going to get your child upset. They may get upset or anything. But don't provoke. Instead discipline and instruct you to know what's wrong with Generation Z. Is that what generation we're in right now. There's no discipline in the houses. There's definitely not an instruction outside of an iPad or an iPhone. Discipline and instruct these relationships take patience. These relationships take understanding Amen. The husband wife relationship takes patience. The parent relationship takes patience and understanding and they take diligence. The same way Jesus was and his patient and long suffering with us. We are to be the same with those in our families. Amen. Well, marriage is hard. Yeah, it is. Oh, Parenting is hard. Yeah, it is. Guess what? Jesus is relationship with us. What he did for us was hard. The cross was almost impossible. But Jesus didn't. So we are called to build up our families, patience, understanding, diligence, why has been built his family and number four, it's Father's Day, so gave me an extra. A wise man builds his faith. A wise man builds his faith, the most important thing you can do is continue building your faith. Of all Solomon's faults and successes, he always made time to worship the Lord. Verse 12, says, after he did these things, Solomon offered up burnt offerings to the Lord on the altar of the Lord that he built before the vegetable. That's what worship was. That's how they worship. They offered up offerings that was worship. And he did everything that the duties required. And then it says in verse 15, and they did not turn aside from what the king had commanded them do. He had all the worship laid out the way it should be. In verse 16, says, Thus was accomplished all the work of Solomon from the day the foundation of house lord was laid, until it's finished. So the house alone was completed. What did he do? He, he offered sacrifices, he observed his father's commands King David, he still practice his faith. He built up his faith, despite his struggles, there's there's no evidence that Solomon completely fell away from the Lord. Yes, his wives turned his hearts. But we see through his life, especially his writings, in Ecclesiastes, we see a man who continued to learn from his mistakes and continued to grow in wisdom, no matter your age, you can always continue to grow, continue to learn, it's not over until God calls you home. He was far from perfect, as we know, like most believers saw him and had High Times spiritual victory. And there's some times where I'll sit down, I'll think to myself, You know what, I got this marriage thing figured out. I got this, I got this parenting thing figured out. And I feel like a success. And there's times low times of spiritual failure. Where I'll think, Why in the world, did my wife ever marry me? Why in the world did God give me four children? I can't do this. We have times of spiritual victory in times of spiritual failure. But it all seems evident in the Bible. That's Solomon knew the Lord. He worshipped Him and continued building his faith and the most important thing you can do and building your spiritual life and building your faith is to be consistent. To be consistent, every day, every day. Your sin, repent. You'll experience God's blessings rejoice. In the highest percentage of church dropouts, what's the highest percentage they happen after they have attended just six months? come somewhere people will come to church for six months or so they get what they need to meet their spiritual need, and then they they move on. That's not the best way to build your spiritual life. Be consistent. Don't do that. Stick it out. That's why one reason why I love this service so much. So many of you have been here much longer than six months, amen. Some of you have been here for years, decades. I know you're not perfect. You know, I'm not perfect. But it tells me, it tells others, that you're making it important to build your spiritual life to build your faith. May not be here every week. But you're here most weeks. And that's wisdom. Getting up. You don't feel like it. Coming to an 830 service. Maybe some of you already got for three hours. I don't know. Some of you aren't gonna get up earlier. I didn't want to get up this morning on Father's Day. God's called me so I'm here. Get up. We stick it out. We keep coming to the Lord's house. We come to Lord's house when it's good. Amen. And we come when it's bad, amen. Whatever that looks like in your life, keep growing in your faith. Keep building your faith. That is the wise way of life. And even even if you work at the 711 and God's giving you something that you don't know you can handle. It wise person builds his faith. Heavenly Father, we thank you so much for today. Thank you so much for giving us Jesus. We all come in here today, this Father's Day with different places in our lives, different mental states. We come in here to worship to hear from you. And we thank you that we can hear from you each and every week. Or with the exception of 1000 year pandemic. We're never closed. We're open every Sunday to worship You, Lord to give a time of our lives to you. For what you've done for us because we love you we want to be here. Or I know there are some that want to be here that can't. Those who are watching us right now. So I pray right now for those that are watching us on TV online, wherever it is that you would bless them today, Lord, the physically unable to be here but would love to. And for those of us that are physically able to be here, when I'm glad we're here today are Oui oui. Oui, thank you for what you do in us in Christ Jesus. Or there's one here today. It's never placed their faith in you. And you would save them today they would look to you for salvation. Lord, as we leave here this Father's Day that we would be builders of places we'd be builders of people. We'd be builders of families. And we'd be builders of our faith. Father, we love you. We ask these things in Jesus name.